The year 2007 was marked by a notable setback for global freedom, Freedom House reported in its annual worldwide survey of political rights and civil liberties in mid-January 2008.

The decline in freedom, as reported in Freedom in the World 2008, was reflected in reversals in one-fifth of the world's countries. While the decline was most pronounced in South Asia, it was also significant in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa.

The declines in a substantial number of politically important countries will have broad regional and global implications -- including Russia, Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

Freedom House considered 90 countries, representing 46% of the world's population, "free" in 2007. There were 121 electoral democracies, two less than in '06.